ABSTRACT:Purpose: Assessment of mechanism of injury and type and location of the facial injury. Material and Methods: The medical records of 276 patients with 216 facial fractures were retrospectively analyzed. Fracture patterns were classified based on the presence or absence of fractures of the orbit, zygoma, maxilla, mandible and nose. Results: The most common etiology of trauma was assault (42.6%) followed by car accident (23.1%), fall (16.2%), sports (5%), occupational (2%), and gunshot wound (0.9%) (fig. 1). The most common fracture type was mandible fractures (31.1%), followed by nasal bone fracture (29.3%) (fig. 2). Car accident was found to be a significant predictor of panfacial fractures or associated injury, as was GSW. Sports injuries were a significant predictor of isolated upper midface fractures, and assault was a significant predictor for isolated mandible and nasal bones fractures. Car accident and GSW each were found to lead to significantly higher severity of injury than assault, fall, and sports.
Conclusion: The results confirm intuitive aspects of the etiology of facial fractures that have been anecdotally supported in the past
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